


Payment Plan: Second Installment

by Indehed



Series: Bride Price [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Possessive Steve McGarrett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 12:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indehed/pseuds/Indehed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He looked down at his wrists, where the thin gold metal bands wove around each and crossed over in front like an infinity symbol, locking them tightly together in front of his body. This was the whole point, right here. This was what the pro-love movement meant. How was getting married in this way anything except selling one person to another?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Payment Plan: Second Installment

**Author's Note:**

> More in the 'verse.. there will be another story to come with it. I just needed to give Danny some time to come to terms with things in his own head for a little bit before the crazy happens again. Not that he isn't still completely conflicted, of course, but he needed to be, well, Danny.  
> Thanks again to Paulette for the beta!

Okay, no. Just…. hold on. Why was he doing this? Why was he sitting in his nicest pair of pants and shirt (that Chin had brought over from his apartment), with ceremonial bindings on his wrists that Kono had put on for him before giving him a smirk, a pat on the back, a 'good luck, brah' and leaving to go take her seat outside?

He'd sobered up. That was part of it. He'd swallowed enough Tylenol and drunk enough water to force his body out of its hangover and he felt like he was fully among the living once more. His brain was back online and as he thought over everything from the night before and the morning so far, he really had to wonder just why the _**hell**_ he was just following along with everything. 

He could back out of this. He didn't have to do it. What was he missing out on anyway? Their deal had only just been signed, nothing had actually taken place for the payments yet so if Steve didn't have to fork out for all the things he'd promised then no harm, no foul. 

He hadn't even seen Steve for the last half hour. They were both getting ready and Steve was somewhere downstairs organizing more things (and Danny was still marveling at how much he'd organized to put this all together and so fast, considering the crazy had only begun the night before). 

Maybe that was part of the problem. Everything in the house was going at a weird speed that Danny hadn't been able to match so far today. Now that he was alone, he was able to put some decent thought into all of this. 

Fine, okay, drunk Danny had a point. Providing for Grace's college fund was essential and marriage, it seemed, was a good way to do that. 

He hated that his cop's salary and the cost of moving to and then living in Hawaii had put a horrid dent into what he could provide for Grace's future. That little girl was his life and he wanted to buy her the moon if she asked for it. If she needed to be able to get through law school or med school or support some other career choice that was noble, fitting and safe, then he wanted her to be able to do that without worrying about the exorbitant costs involved. 

But Danny was a proud man. He was fine with gifts or whatever, but if there was ever a hint of pity or charity then he struggled to accept it, because he was raised to believe in providing for himself. He didn't need Steve to swoop in and save the day. He didn't need Steve to insist that every apartment Danny lived in was a dump. He knew they weren't beach front properties with three bedrooms, but they were what he could afford and it was a roof over his head. That would have to do. He in no way needed to marry in order to get a shiny house. Or part of one, anyway. He could get a house himself once he'd been here longer, had a bit more money behind him, and could look into mortgages.

This was a nice house though, and Grace liked coming here.

Except, no. That didn't mean he had to live here. What was wrong with just visiting Uncle Steve every so often?

He looked down at his wrists, where the thin gold metal bands wove around each and crossed over in front like an infinity symbol, locking them tightly together in front of his body. 

This was the whole point, right here. This was what the pro-love movement meant. How was getting married in this way anything except selling one person to another. If one person is in chains, how can it be equal? 

This isn't a kink. _That_ he can deal with. The thought of Steve wrapping something around Danny's wrists to hold him immobile while they're together in bed is certainly a fantasy Danny had always been willing to indulge in, and he knew Steve would be up for that too, but bedroom antics are just that. It would be kept in the bedroom, it would be for fun. Playing with Steve's dominant side, playing with Danny's mild kink of Steve being dominant with him. Sure, it's a nice thought. 

But when you put it into practice. When you say this is how they live their lives? That Danny be handed over to Steve (even if it is his own stupid fault) and that Steve would now own Danny? It doesn't matter how often the Government insists it's not slavery, ownership still lingers in the ideals of modern marriage in a way that's difficult to reconcile. 

He and Rachel had managed. Like Steve had pointed out earlier, marriages like that were easy because if payment was so low, then divorce was never difficult to obtain. Many marriages used that model nowadays in order to assuage the guilt complex that some felt with the notion of buying and selling brides and husbands. Danny had been the same. 

So why, _**WHY**_ , did he and Steve draw up their ridiculous document where Steve was pretty much offering _everything_ to have Danny. Did he think himself selfless? Was Steve doing this as one of his grand gestures? Or was this the ultimate in ownership: if he gave everything, did he _own_ Danny completely? How would Danny even start to 'pay him back'? 

Danny's knees bounced as he sat, nervous energy flowing through him. He got up and paced the floor, getting annoyed at the wrist bindings when he tried to move one hand and the other went with. 

This whole situation was a mess. It should never have come this far, certainly not without proper discussion. The kind that could take weeks, or months, to eventually decide just how they might go about getting married. That is, if they even wanted to do so after a courting period where maybe they were both fully aware that courting was actually taking place.

Steve could say that's what they'd been doing for the past two years. Yes, he could very well say that, and he had. But Danny had no clue that it was anything except friendship and a frisson of attraction underneath. Courtship was a whole other level of 'whoa, there'.

Steve McGarrett was a colossal pain in the ass. Doing his usual and running in where angels fear to tread and just assuming he'll remain bulletproof and everyone will fall in line with what he wants. The ninja idiot with his mental problems. Why can't he just act like a human being and do things properly? Make his intentions clear. Actually speak to Danny. Use words. They could work all this out if they'd just take their time.

The house today was the opposite of that. Steve was blazing ahead; he had everyone running around for him so he could pull this off. Some of their friends thought this was romantic, that Steve would do this for Danny, that they got together this way, that they went from zero to sixty the night before by somehow drunkenly admitting that they _could_ get married, then putting their foot on the gas and gunning it to two hundred in the next moment by _actually_ getting married the next day.

No. No, he wasn't getting married. Not without strenuous renegotiation. And he had to get these bindings off. He needed space; he needed to formulate his exact argument. He probably needed to see his soul-sucking lawyer.

He yanked the window open and leaned on the sill as he peered out at the roof tiles. Well, okay, he could do it. It wasn't too slanted and just a ways over was a tree he could use to ease his way down to the ground without jumping.

He pulled himself up and gingerly edged his way out. His bare feet struggled against the heat in the tiles and his bound hands made his balance more difficult. He slowly lowered his body, bending his knees as he sat and slid his way down and over. He took it slow and steady. He was off to the side where he really couldn't be seen from the backyard where people had gathered, nor from the room, unless someone came right to the window. 

As he reached the tree, he gripped tightly to an out-hanging branch, but his hands made this difficult. He wrapped his legs around the trunk and slowly shimmied his way down. He then dangled himself down, only letting go when he was confident in his fall. He dropped like a stone to the hard packed grass below and winced as he landed on his tail bone, unable to brace against the impact. 

His dress pants were covered in dirt and bits of bark and moss and he wiped the worst of it away. The white shirt he wore would likely never recover and dammit, he'd ripped part of the fabric. His stomach had a small line of blood where some sharp piece of bark had cut into him. 

"Damn," he mumbled to himself as he got to his feet. Checking behind and around him constantly, he hurried to the end of the drive. Careful to not be seen, he dashed out onto the street, all the while aware that he was barefoot and clearly wearing marriage ceremony bindings. If anyone looked over at him now from the houses round about, it would be pretty clear that this was a man fleeing his own wedding. 

But screw it. He was not getting married. Not today. And not to Steve McGarrett.


End file.
